Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Communities of Trust | Dr. Jerry Goebel
29.07.2026-04.08.2026
Review and Announcements
This week’s review focuses on the urgent structural changes U.S. voters are demanding from future elected officials to permanently safeguard our democracy against authoritarian takeovers. We also break down the scapegoating, systemic racism, and failed policies of the current white, Christian, nationalistic regime—moving the analysis beyond just Donald Trump to confront the broader movement. Read the full analysis and join the discussion over on my Substack Profile or join our daily conversation on Facebook and BlueSky.
Visual Stories
Our visual story this week features the premiere of “The Party of Projection,” a concept developed alongside my son to expose the psychological warfare of modern politics. As he perfectly captured it: “Every accusation is an admission.” We see this dynamic play out vividly in the Senate’s revenge hearings targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci—sessions run by partisan hacks and medical quacks at the direct insistence of their "Hater-in-Chief," Donald Trump.
Watch: Experience the full visual story right now on my YouTube Channel.
Support: Purchase the track directly from the Communities of Trust Store to help keep this advocacy self-supporting.
Connect: Access all of our resource hubs, youth advocacy initiatives, and music platforms in one place via our Linktree Page.
04.08.2026 | Source: The Atlantic
This May Be Trump’s Biggest Error in the Iran War
The writers of this article, Nancy Youssef and Jonathon Lemire, point to an adage about war by Sun Tzu: “Know your enemy.”
Like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and even Ukraine, this war-of-choice will not be over until the occupied country says it is. And the morally-vacant instigators of this Middle Eastern war—Trump and Netanyahu—are incapable of “knowing their enemy,” because they are incapable of reflection. Both are insanely capable of deflection, blaming their current situation on others, but the internal mechanisms for what another is thinking are absent in these two. Both can only think about themselves.
Perhaps the most telling phrase in this article is a quote taken from Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: “America’s calculation is that escalation would lead to surrender. Iran’s calculation is that escalation would lead to deterrence.”
Trump’s response to the war currently was, “Couldn’t care less…”
It’s not his children that are going to war in Iran; it won’t be any of his children dying. Chances are Trump stands to graft even more of a fortune from rebuilding the U.S.’s depleted military. How will it leave the nation in his wake? Again, let’s quote Donald: “I couldn’t care less…”
03.08.2026 | Source: USA Today
Trump's approval is circling the toilet. I'm delighted. | Opinion
Rex Huppke of USA Today suggests that Trump should have been a plumber, not a politician, since his polling numbers are circling the porcelain lately. He goes on to examine these numbers and look at why they are historically low after pointing out that the President’s current numbers match the low they hit after Trump’s January 6 riots. Here’s how Huppke spells it out: “Do you know how bad things have to be for you to hit an ‘as bad as that time I fomented an insurrection’ level of disapproval? Trump didn't even need to coax his followers into ransacking the U.S. Capitol this time around. He just earned this striking level of disapproval organically. Part of me feels like we should congratulate him. It shows real growth when a tin-pot dictator learns to be loathed all on his own.”
And, guess who is circling the porcelain with the president? Yes, his congressional lackeys. While the Senate Republicans (The Party of Projection) are busy attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci in their kangaroo court, measles has hit a 35-year high and the country is awash (perhaps a bad choice of words) with an explosive diarrhea epidemic caused when Trump, RFK, Jr., and Musk’s DOGE dismantled the agency responsible for preventing such national malaises. Here’s how Huppke interprets the numbers for a GOP on the verge of a potentially disastrous midterm: “MAGA enthusiasts and Trump bootlickers can spin these numbers as numerical tyranny or denounce math as a form of socialist extremism all they want. But denial shouldn't be of much help to a Republican Party waltzing into November's midterm elections with a president who's about as popular as tainted lettuce.”
What astonishes me is that there is still a percentage of citizens that support this “Marie Antoinette” cretin and his policies. That percentage—like the Republicans in Congress or on the Supreme Court— won’t change. They need to be outed. They need to experience the consequences of how unpopular (even loathed) they are. Our one shot is Tuesday, November 3. If we don’t overwhelm them at the polls this time, a second time will not come around.
31.07.2026 | Source: PBS News
The campaign against Fauci and what brought him back before Congress
If we could see the inside of a courtroom where the Catholic Church attacked Galileo, it would look very much like the Republican (and Rand Paul’s) attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday. This was obviously a kangaroo court carried out for an audience of one: Donald J. Trump. Trump was embarrassed by Fauci for two reasons: 1) Fauci’s commitment to honesty and scientific fact, and 2) Trump’s continual bumbling that cost the lives of millions in the U.S.
Their respective responses to a globally dangerous disease couldn’t be more juxtaposed. Trump suggesting rectal bleach suppositories and horse medication for a quick (and cheap) fix, Fauci pressing for a scientific, long-term response that involved closing schools, social isolation, and mask-wearing, plus governmentally-funded vaccines.
Fauci chose to respond to Republicans’ queries yesterday by choosing the Fifth Amendment, including when Josh Hawley (the senator who ran in shame during the Trump-sponsored attacks on the Capitol on January 6, 2021) asked him about the color of his tie. This is not an indication of Fauci’s prevarication; it is an indictment of Trump’s desire to take down anyone (or anything) that reminds us of how bad his presidency has been. A “revenge-tour” propagated by his many minions, including Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, and Ron Johnson, on this faux court. It’s important to remember that Fauci is no longer covered by the pardon he received from Joe Biden, and the Republicans were clearly looking for any information they could use to arrest and prosecute this outstanding public servant who faithfully advised (with honor) seven presidents over forty years.
Perhaps Fauci’s greatest sin against Trump was when the incompetent-in-chief wanted to fire the doctor; Fauci’s ratings were higher than Trump’s, and Trump had to retreat.
Once again, Republicans find themselves on the wrong side of truth, science, and morality. Their narrative wants someone to blame for the Corona Virus, but science doesn’t support that conspiracy, and Fauci isn’t giving them their bogeyman. They would love to blame anyone but Trump for all the deaths on his (their) watch. Once again, they show themselves as merely lackeys of the Orange One, bunkered down in the White House. Their hearing was another circus show, but not a show of justice. Instead, it was a show of unchecked power and vengefulness. A cultic attempt to create a mythology around an inconvenient truth. My son said it best when he said, “This is a party of projection, every accusation they make is an admission.”
In this trial of a modern Galileo, this Party of Projection portrays their own ignorance, spinelessness and adherence to their pedophile king.
30.07.2026 | Source: Daily Kos
‘Chaos, corruption, and poverty’: The racist wrath of Stephen Miller
Lisa Needham, staff writer at the Daily Kos, peels back the ugly layers of a rotting onion; namely… Stephen Miller. Here are her words: “In an administration stuffed full of the very worst, most morally vacant, reprehensible people on Earth, senior White House adviser and top hate-filled hobgoblin Stephen Miller still manages to stand out.”
No white, nationalist, racist has had more sway in this administration than this Joseph Goebbels of the Trump administration. When you want to know who is behind ICE, the killing of U.S. citizens on our own soil, behind concentration camps (in the U.S. and abroad), look no further than this man.
Miller has had unlimited access to Trump, ever since his first term, but even more powerful in the second term.
Needham pays heed to the dichotomy of this man’s evil ideology by saying: “Of course, Miller is only here to spew this garbage because his grandfather fled anti-Jewish violence in Belarus and settled as an impoverished immigrant in the United States, where his family then joined him. But Miller doesn’t believe that anyone else’s family deserves that sort of chance.
It is interesting that this administration is knee-deep in immigrants; Trump’s wife, Vance’s wife, Miller’s parents, Rubio’s parents. And yet, all of them hate immigrants. Melania is a former call-girl for Jeffrey Epstein, who visited a child-detention facility wearing a coat that said, “I really don’t care, do you?” Vance’s wife is of Indian descent, Miller’s parents were Jewish from eastern Europe, and Rubio’s parents fled Cuba. What is the root of their passionate hatred?
Needham points to the recent murders of Pérez Paz and González de la Cruz, reminding us of the atrocities done to them under Stephen Miller’s policies: “The couple was recently found shot to death in a sugarcane field in Guatemala—bound and showing signs of torture, with their 14-month-old daughter crying beside her mother’s body.”
The primary point of Needham’s article is to call attention to one of Miller’s most recent spittle-infused diatribes in which he said, “If you give these people power, everything you know and love in this world falls apart. You have chaos, corruption, and poverty!”
But, points out Needham… “Buddy, we have chaos, corruption, and poverty right now—under your boss—at unprecedented levels.”
Trump’s approval ratings are at an all-time low (The Economist/YouGov: 34% approval, 62% disapproval, July 25–27, 2026) and yet the Republican Congress by and large still seems to live in fear of his mafia-like tactics (and enough Democrats to continue to wage an illegal war in Iran).
It is not enough to elect a new Congress and impeach Trump. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows us to impeach his entire cabinet, but only one at a time. Will we elect a Congress that understands that this is their mandate? We can’t allow J.D. Vance to take over the presidency. We can’t allow cabinet members like Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio or Stephen Miller to retain their power. Let’s not go into this next election wishy-washy about the results we are demanding. Let’s pull this whole administration out down to its rotting roots.
29.07.2026 | Source: Pew Research Center
Most Americans favor big changes to the political system that likely would require amending the Constitution.
Drew DeSilver and John Gramlich of the Pew Research Center keep us apprised of changes that most U.S. citizens (Democrats and Republicans) want to see to the United States Constitution. They also examine how difficult these changes would be but affirm that it has happened before.
Simply put (the article goes into much more detail), citizens are strongly in favor of four changes: Term Limits, Maximum age restrictions for public office (all branches of government), limits on how much individuals and organizations can spend on campaigns, and presidential elections that are decided by a nationwide popular vote.
The first two of these changes are supported by over 70% of the voting public, and the third is supported by over 60%. Keeping the current system is as unsupported as Trump’s latest poll numbers (in the low-thirties).
Changing the constitution requires 2/3’s of Congress. But when 2.3’s of voters want that change, it seems that Congress (and the courts) would respond. However, we know that it isn’t unusual for our representatives to neglect whom they’re representing when their own self-interest is at heart—and many of these changes would challenge their self-interest. Here is another reason the midterms (now only months away) are so critical. These representatives need to see how reprehensible their behavior is to a majority of their voters. They need a clear message that cannot be misinterpreted. Turnout needs to be historic.
